Official Wrasslin' Thread (renamed to reflect the discussion)
I'm seeing more people openly criticize Triple H's booking online now, especially of the women's division. Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful said today on his show that he's actually been contacted by multiple main roster women to air their grievances about how the division is being booked in the lead up to Mania. I think we are at the end of the post-Vince honeymoon period, and a lot of Triple H's creative flaws have become much more noticeable.
Also, the numbers that Netflix have reported for Raw are pretty unremarkable. The past couple of weeks it's settled around 3 million viewers, which includes international markets. That's pretty meh given they started around 5 million.
Then you throw in the constant raising of ticket prices and I think we're probably at the start of a cooldown period.
I can only speak for myself, but I'm tuning in a lot less lately. Product feels boring aside from NXT, which I personally feel is their best show currently.
The women's division is thriving at NXT and Giulia and Stephanie have really given them some nice momentum. Theres some excellent talent with ladies like Sol Ruca, Jaidia, Rox,, Fallon have all been great workers, beautiful and really kept the women's division at a high level. The addition of the NA Belt has also helped booking and kept things interesting. Men's division has been pretty steady, and it doesn't hurt that top talent from the main roster has made cameo appearances and NXT talent makes appearances at the main shows pretty regularly.
And I don't think it's an accident that Shawn is doing a good job there. It's clear he knows what he's doing. Doesn't get a home run every time, but his moves have been hard to argue against.
Also, I do think them being on CW is turning out to be a better than expected home for NXT. Feels like they're building up a following with younger fans.
As for Netflix, it's been alright. We knew the pop for the initial shows would be big and if they settle in at 2-3 million viewers, they'll be fine. I do think things will pick up from EC to WM tho. Where we'll see a real drop-off will be after Mania imo.
And fwiw, I really don't have too much of an issue with booking in SD and Raw, but it's getting a little stale in some spots and I do think they need to move talent around and create some new angles and rivalries.
And it can't hurt to bring over some of the young talent in NXT. That would maybe help some.